We are heading out on a 7-8 day trip in a few weeks, and I am having some trouble coming up with what to feed Sandy (he well be 11.5 months). I normally prepare all of his food by cooking and then chopping it in the food processor (not puree). Then I fill up ice cube trays with the food. (When it is frozen I pop them out and put them into labeled slide locks).

At meal time I go shopping in the freezer and pick out 1 meat, 1 orange veg., 1 green veg., and a carbohydrate (orzo, pasta, potato or rice). Right now he doesn't mind if they are mixed together as long as he has finger food to feed himself while I give him the rest (cubed squash, turnip, parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower, all diff. types of beans, pasta in cheese sauce). He can't have eggs until he is two (although he can have products that contain eggs.

Today I did the freezer shopping bit and threw it in the dehydrator. But that only covered suppers. Now the question is, what am I going to feed him for lunches?
I have a couple of problems that we have not encountered on our short trips:

1)how am I going to keep him in one place to feed him (on the lap doesn't work, we don't have room for the stroller top with tray we have been using, and without it he crawls away faster than you can blink! Also terribly messy)

2)what am I going to give him for lunches on days on the go where we can't get out the stove? He can only live on cheese and crackers so long!

3) how am I going to prepare all the parts to his meal efficiently? (I normally need 4 bowls to microwave things - his meat/veggies/carbo bowl; his bean bowl; his pasta or veg bowl/his dessert)

Try feeding him in one of those packable Hammocks, worked for my yougest
Didn't have mine out for longer than a few days when they were babies (Bravo to you) so cheese crackers, fruits packed very careully did the trick for lunches. I have heard you can make a yougurt and fruit leather. You could try your local library for the dehydration cookbook (Delong) I believe is the author. Too young for peanut butter, how about some chewy granola bars cut up small? Re-hydrated hummus on pita with cucumbers? Cherry tomatoes packed really well? Cold rice salad cooked the night before? Tough question. Good luck, you should post your creative findings, good information to have. Cheers

thanks for trying guys! I had in fact dried his fruit to leathers last night, and he likes chick peas ground up so hummis is a good idea. I am going to experiment with yogurt and also try cottage cheese!

I also guess I could cook his lunch and put it in the thermos like I do now and just hang it from the stern seat.

Gail, what is the packable hammock?

I have one of those booster seats that folds flat and then hangs from a table by putting an arm above and an arm below. I am thinking if we drill 2 holes in a cafe tray and hang it/set it on top, it will be like a mini high chair only he will be sitting on the ground. It is a little bulky, and not too light (I will have to bend on being light weight on this trip I guess, but is hard enough to think about everything to pack for him as it is!) What do you think?

Dammit I was Thinking dinners when I wrote this.
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Have you given any thought to plain Couscous and putting veggie mush in with it?

Can Veggie mush be dried to something close to a leather?

What about the Knorr soup mixes? I think they have some variety to choices in them.

Rice could be used for Breakky and dinner.

Pablum (If he'll eat it)

The Heinz Cereals (essentially another brand of pablum)

soupy mashed potato flakes

V-8 for a veggie boost. (You can get it in little tins) (I wonder if it could be dehydrated to a powder)

It might be an idea to send away to a science supply house for a mortar and Pestel (Or steal one from the schools science dept) and try to smoosh the food you are eating and just have him on your diet. This is only an idea, and I'd try it at home first.

Hire someone to fly fresh food out to you each day at meal time. (Could get pricey, but what the heck!!)

Cheryl,
Sandy is a lucky kid to be able to go on a 7-8 day canoe trip at the age of 11.5 months. I know that whatever you feed him, he will have a good time.
My daughter just turned 4 years old and has spent about 10 weeks on canoe trips. She loves it. Her first 2 week trip was at the age of 11 months. So, I hope I can offer some answers.
If Sandy is not walking yet, you will find this to be the easiest canoe trip you will have with him. The canoe is a sleeping machine and the tent is a giant playpen.
To try and answer your questions:

1) We used a child carrier (a backpack that you carry kids in) for carring Logan across portages. This doubled as an excellent high chair to feed her in. It is free standing but would usually strap it to a tree for safety so it didn't tip over. If no trees were available, we would just find a level surface and stay very close or put it between packs or something sturdy.

2) I looked back though our trip log about the things we fed Logan at 11 months. She ate what we ate. I asked my wife (registered dietician) what she recommended. First, she says that you are feeding your son excellent food. She says if you are still breast feeding you will have a lot less to worry about. Still you can use formula easily. But, says either way don't get too worked up about the food you give him. At 11 months old kids can eat what you eat (provided you make healthy choices and it sounds like you do). Just cut, break, or mash the food that you prepare for yourself into small pieces. Make sure he has plenty of fluids and provide lots of snack food. The snack food that I remember off the top of my head (the reason I remember these is because I liked them too) were teddy grahams, animal crackers, cherios and little tins of fruit coctail.

At that age our two were pretty much eating what we were, just mashed. The mortar and pestle idea is a good one. Some vegetables could be cooked up while making breakfast and mashed up for lunch. Carrots and green beans would travel well for a few days anyway. A small squash might last longer. Hard boiled eggs would work too. Wish I had been able to take mine at that age. The wife thought she liked camping until she found out what my idea of camping is. As a family we take a more civilized approach.

1) How about using one of those Thermarest chairs or the generic versions and strap baby in with some extra straps for feeding. That way you get a comfy seat to use when baby isn't eating.

2) If history/anthropology serves me well, For thousands of years human mothers have been chewing food for babies to soften it up. It may sound gross but we wouldn't be here otherwise. Alternatively, the mortar and pestle idea does the same thing (but one more thing to carry). The chewing idea may actually add to your wilderness experience.

When our guys were babies (a long, long time ago), we used to have a small hand grinder for making baby food. It was a little cylinder about the size of a water filter. You took the top plate off, stuffed it full of food and turned the crank on the top. The resulting mush came through some grinding plates on the bottom.

How many teeth does she have? Our children have always eaten whatever we were eating by that age. Just cut it up small enough or mash the big pieces. My wife and I have used a variation of the pre-chewing of food, our daughter (now 13 months) loves grapes, we have to cut them in half, when no knife is available... Lots of things that used to seem disgusting don't when you have children. We resorted to the hold in the lap feeding method on a recent week long trip.
I'll have to disagree with a previous comment "this will be the easiest time canoeing.." at 11.5 months I'm guessing she wants to walk / crawl everywhere, keeping an eye on her will be a handful.
Have a good time, I wouldn't trade any of the time I get to spend outdoors with our children.

You guys have some great ideas! Alexander James ( or Sandy as we call him - Alex -sand -er see how we get the "Sandy". It is a sommon Scottish name, but we get a lot of people asking how we derive Sandy from Alexander) is at the age where he HAS to have finger food to feed himself at every meal. He has 4 front teeth, and he is a real wiggle wart, and you should see his head by the time he is done (I am forever scraping out cottage cheese and veggies). The sit on the lap method doesn't work at all - he just wants to smear me! He would love to live on pasta and cheese, with Navy, Kidney, Lentils, North beans, carrots, broccoli, and peas as a side dishes, but it is hard to find meats he can eat as finger foods (I mix his veg. carbo and meats/TVP and spoon feed him).

But you have good ideas. Fresh carrots, a very small squash etc. I can take (it is just hard to cook and store such small quanities, but I am going to try cooking in a blue "prospector cup"). No need anymore for a mortar and pestel (although I could have borrowed a new one from work for earlier trip if I had of thought of it!).

The experiment with drying cottage cheese worked out well - as long as you melt the cottage cheese into his food after rehydrating (it is really chewy).

The yogurt is in the dehydrator now, I will let you know what happens.

Tomato/V8 juice should dry into a great leather hadn't thought of it, thanks Chris. Couscous, orzo, rice, and pablum are all a go and packed

Good ideas on snack food Stan, and I will add the little cheese gold fishes to the list too. Liquids are no problem. And yup, we will keep the days short, although he is used to being in the boat all day long, with only stops for lunch, snacks and pee breaks.

If I use the Crazy Creek chair, I could just use a try across his lap, if I can figure out a way to keep him from lifting and dumping it (I am thinking hang it on him like a cigar girl - na, he would not go for that). What a good idea - thanks Tommy! Maybe I can rig one up like a bed rest tray - then he could use it for a few years!

His food just needs to be soft enough and small enough that he doesn't choke, so he will get some of our food. It is just that we haven't introduced a lot of spices yet, and we love to have spicy food. The other problem is that we have always cooked his lunches, and haven't don't a lot of cold lunches. I don't know why we always have trouble coming up with lunches on every trip we have ever been on - even without the kids!

We have a good backpack carrier, but the seat height is not adjustable, so he is still to low down to be able to feed him. I use a Trekker (a snuggley with excellent backsupport that can be worn on your front or back with him facing in or out) so that I can also carry either a pack or the canoe.
Oh well, keep the ideas coming!

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